Profit and size of beef cow herds may be largely determined by the pasture available during the hot summer months. With low forage production from natural pastures and undependable growing conditions, the number of animals that can be grazed on a particular area must be limited in order to minimize risks of having a pasture shortage which would mean selling animals or purchasing additional forage. In Virginia we have primarily cool-season grasses in our natural pastures. 

Tests to compare caging, ground culture, and trellising systems of tomatoes were conducted at the Virginia Tech Horticulture Research Farm in the early 1970's with earlier determinate or short growing tomato varieties. Varieties with fewer vines and "self-topping" types were grown in short cages on mulches as early season companions to later-maturing trellis varieties. Many growers adopted short cage culture, using black plastic mulch under the determinate vines.